The polls bell for thee, Malcolm

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The Prime Minister is deeply unpopular with much of the Liberal Party base, pundits keep telling us, yet he is the preferred Prime Minister 45 points to opposition leader’s 31 per cent (first Newspoll of 2018). This is not surprising, since Malcolm Turnbull is seen as Labour-lite and many Labour voters seem to prefer him to Bill Shorten.

With the Coalition trailing 48-52 on a two party preferred basis, it’s easy to see that Labour voters would prefer anyone but Shorten as PM, if 52 per cent of voters would vote Labour but only 31 per cent prefer Shorten.

Of course, as political insiders keep saying, the preferred prime minister vote doesn’t count for much: the primary vote is the key indicator. But it is nevertheless telling that despite the constant criticism of Turnbull as a mumbler, a do-nothing, stand-for-nothing lefty, he is still preferred PM over Shorten. By golly, what if he was a strong, visionary leader? Would that pull up the primary vote?

In a fantasy Labour world, Turnbull would be their leader right now, completely at ease with most of their policies, judging by his lack of a negative response to them.